


Slip of Paper

by Seabreezekisses



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Hipster Washington, M/M, lazy ass genius church, many many cats involved
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-15
Updated: 2015-10-14
Packaged: 2018-04-26 10:51:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5001895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Seabreezekisses/pseuds/Seabreezekisses
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Revised/Re-Uploaded. </p><p>Before he registered what had happened, his ass hit the ground and he looked up, his blue-grey eyes meeting bright green as whoever he’d run into said a very aggravated “Watch it, asshole!” </p><p>Wash didn’t respond, he was too busy staring at him, mouth agog with disbelief. he was staring at the man he’d passed by at the coffee shop, the man who he’d seen in the photographs on the computer during his search. </p><p>He’d ran straight into Leonard Church Jr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Slip of Paper

\--__--__--__--__--

Libraries had the distinct smell of books and were some of the most ideal places for people like Washington to hang out. Hipsters like him fit the scene well, bundled up in scarves and thrift store sweatshirts while curled up reading a book fit him just fine, in fact it fit him to a tee, or most anyone who knew Wash would say. He would have to agree, he loved the atmosphere, especially if the library had a small cafe in it for the purpose of providing him a nice up of coffee, unfortunately, this one did not, however it was large, and had many sections on all three of its floors for him to use. That was perfect. 

He rarely visited the third floor of this one, since he usually went to the one further down town, but one was closer to the apartment complex, bigger, and despite its lack of a cafe, its wide selection made it ideal for what he needed. The third floor had a lot of things to offer, even a small semi obscured section that, even though it was open to te public, was barely looked at, if at all.

This part of the library was empty, and seemed to be untouched for quite a while, or at least mostly untouched. He was sure the odd book here or there had been used, but for the most part this wing was vacant. It was clean, after all the library janitorial staff had a job and they did it well, but even that didn’t take away from the feeling of neglect the books most likely felt. 

His mission was clear, find a book and make a short film about it, nothing too fancy and easy to do on his budget, and so far no book he’s found struck a chord with him. David’s hour long search brought him to to one of the oldest parts of the building, where many books of both fiction and nonfiction sat with little use or visitation. 

He had a good feeling about this place, the books were old and most likely obscure and would make for an interesting project, something new and unusual. Eager to find something for his project, he began his search, scanning the myriad of shelves for anything that seemed interesting. It wasn’t long until he found himself in an old Young Adult section.

“This could work,” he muttered to himself, “Young Adult fiction is growing in popularity but if I can find a nice book I think I can overlook that fact.” he glanced over titles, not looking in any special order. He recognized some of these books but quite a few he’d never heard of before. Some were titles were harder to read, due to wear, when he came to one he’d pull it out a bi to read the title, then push it back in, usually out of disinterest. 

He did find a few books that seemed like great ideas until he thought on them. A Wrinkle in time? No, that probably needed a large budget and he was sure there was a movie about that already, Same with Charlotte's web, he’d never realized how many old and now obscure books had movies made of them. 

The Alchemist? No, probably would need a large budget too. The Princess Bride? No, that one had a movie about it already, one of his favorite movies actually. He put re-watching The Princess Bride on his to do list for the week.

Maybe the Last Unicorn? He knew there was an old animated movie about it, but he’d always wanted to see a live action one but..well it was fiction and needed magic and unicorns and he was a college student who needed to make a movie on a tight non-Hollywood budget. 

He’d have that one day, maybe, but right now he had to show everyone he could do great things while still in school, starting with this stupid project. 

After about ten or so minutes of searching Wash sighed and decided, taking The Last Unicorn off the shelf, that maybe he can do an abstract or a stop motion version of the book. he had a friend who was good with making figures, and might help him for a bit of pay, hopefully Wash could afford that. 

If he couldn’t that was fine too, he’d find a way, maybe. David sat down at the nearest work table and opened the book, took his notebook out of his carrier bag, uncapped a pen that he kept attached to the spine of it, and started to read. As he read he started to write down important details, stuff he’d have to keep to make the story make sense.

It was hard work and getting through just two chapters, with the note jotting, took him almost three hours. He hadn’t noticed the time fly until the speakers cracked and he looked up at the one on the far wall just beyond the bookshelves.

“The library will be closing in ten minutes! Please make any final checkouts before the doors lock.” 

Wash saved his place with his favorite bookmark, a home made one of his cat and himself, and closed the book. After packing his stuff back up he carried it to the front desk. 

Late fall in Seattle was chilly, and he was glad he had his scarf and beanie on. The weather was getting cold again, and though it was nothing compared to back in Canada, he still felt it in his bones and needed to stay warm. Wash stopped to put the book in his bag before he headed back to his apartment complex. He had thought of staying on school grounds, but since he had a pet he opted to just get a part time job to pay for rent and food. He was so thankful he’d applied for so many scholarships and grants before graduation, even if the prices of US colleges were ridiculous. 

The only thing more ridiculous was the cost of living. He would be the first to admit his family was well off, and did send him a bit of money since he had decided to go to college out of the country. The night sky was cloudy and he could smell rain on the wind. Wash sped up, hoping to beat the rain. Streetlights illuminated the streets around him, and the glow they made brought out the fall atmosphere. The moon, though mostly obscured by clouds, only added to the magic the scene presented. It was just the type of thing he loved, creative, awe inspiring.

Imaginative. It was the kind of thing that made his mind soar. He passed by shops with carved pumpkins and cute decorations and closed signs with seasonal themes. 

His apartment came into view just as the felt the small droplets of rain start to fall. he sped up, almost running for the stairs that led up to his room. He had to dig deep into his coat pocket to get his keys, but once he unlocked the door and stepped in, he tripped, falling over and just managing to keep the side bag he had from hitting the floor, potentially breaking his precious laptop!

Maine stretched himself out lazily, looking over at his owner and meowing and getting up to lick his paw. Wash sighed and pushed himself off the ground with a grunt. He had to set his bag aside before he picked up his very fat cat and closed his door.

“You’re gonna be the death of me.” he almost cooed to his cat. Maine purred in response and snuggled into Wash’s neck. He’d missed his owner, the food bringer, the one who pets, the all mighty human who knew just where to scratch. 

He loved his human and Wash loved him. He’d been a going away gift from his parents, a small kitten with a large orange splotch on his head, and other smaller brown spots on his otherwise white fur. That had been two years ago.

Now the baby was big and stuffed on meow mix and very affectionate. Maine had a bad habit of sleeping in front of every possible door or walkway but David loved his baby. 

Maine rested on the couch while Wash continued his note taking. He’d probably need to keep this book until he had a full script and started filming, but notes always helped. Wash was always the guy who took more notes than needed, he had an eye for detail. Every tidbit mattered to David Washington.

Wash worked until late, jotting down only taking breaks for bathroom, dinner and to ease his cramping hands when he needed to. He used color coded tabs to keep pages he thought he might need too, each one marked with various little dots to tell him what color meant what. Green dot for pages with artwork, for reference, red for important details he might need, like character description, etc. 

He flipped a page, his eyes feeling a bit heavy, he almost didn't notice the small strand of paper fall out of the book. Maine saw it first and pounced on it, before making himself look like a big loaf of cat as he sat on him. He squinted at Wash and licked his muzzle before wash forced the paper out from under him. 

It was old and folded, and the paper was yellowed a bit, but otherwise it looked untouched. Wash stared at it curiously before he slowly and carefully unfolded it. It was a letter, written in blue marker and still readable. 

It looked like a child had written it too, messy but with an odd sense of intelligence. Wash wondered how old the letter was. He sat back with it and put the book down, using his bookmark to keep page again, before reading it. 

Dear Future Me,

Hi I’m Leonard Church from the past, and I wanted to leave this letter in the book because it’s my favorite book and even though Tucker picks on me for reading long books it’s still my favorite and I am hoping you come back to read it when I’m older because i still wanna read it when I'm older too. My dad said reading is good for me too and he like that I read a lot, does dad still say that? Mom died recently and dad has been sad, is he still sad? WE moved from Texas to Washington because daddy was sad and didn’t want to live in the city he met mom. he said the memories hurt too much. Big sister said he’ll heal in time and I hope so, I want dad to play with me again. What am I like years from now? Did i become a science guy like I wanted? Did i become someone I like when I get older? How tall did I get? Did i outgrow Tucker? I wish I could get these answers from you, but I know I can’t. I hope you find this letter and smile because I thought of you even when you were just my future, but i think my future is important. Please don’t ever stop following your dreams, because I think we can shine brighter than a supernova. Please don’t forget this note either, okay? 

Always be true to you,   
Leonard L. Church Jr. 

He covered his mouth and read it again. This letter was a mix of cute and touching that spoke to Wash on a microscopic level. he read the name over again, it sounded familiar too. Leonard Church, he swore he heard it once. Church wasn’t a too uncommon last name was it? 

There was a famous former expert on neuroscience who wrote a lot of the textbooks the science majors usually used, maybe that was it? No, that didn’t seem quite right. The letter was old but it couldn’t be THAT old right? Maybe he had a son? That made more sense. There was no way this was an old letter, plus the author of the textbooks didn’t have ‘Jr.” after his name. 

He folded the letter and put it in his coat pocket. Tomorrow, he decided , he’d take the letter and try and find the owner, maybe he’d look up the Church family in Washington. That might help, start with what he knew. He wanted to return the note to this ‘Leonard Church Jr.’, something about it just struck him as poetic. 

It was like out of a cheesy ass novel, the type wash enjoyed when nobody was looking. He was the quirky, talented, and handsome protagonist now and this one letter was going to lead him to adventure, or something like that. 

It was about time he headed off to bed anyhow, he was tired from all the note taking, from classes and he just wanted to sleep. Wash put his stuff away, set it aside, and then headed off for his room. Maine followed, intending to sleep on Wash’s face once he drifted off to sleep. Wash settled down into the blankets, oh they were comfortable and warm and he closed his eyes. 

Once his breathing softened, and he started to snore lightly, Maine crawled over to him, and just as planned, he fell asleep on his face, ass first. 

Oh it was good to be the king.  
\--__--__--__--__--

Church had no issues applying himself, these Professors didn’t know jack shit. He just didn’t WANT to apply himself, this was all stuff he knew, after all he was a fucking genius! If his father didn’t already teach him this then he either already knew it or knew it all on his own! It might sound a bit egotistical, but  as far as he was concerned, it was true! Half the time he didn’t even show up to class, attendance wasn’t even part of the grade and the usually empty amphitheater that seemed to only exist to others when something big was going down was a good napping place for him. 

His grades were good, so who cared if he didn’t ‘apply’ himself or whatever, this wasn't’ high school. He got the top grades even if he didn't do any of the assignments he didn't see as important. 

Church sighed, he’d been dwelling on being scolded for hours now. Professor Wyoming was such a know it all, with a know it all face and the stupid mustache that could run its own tumblr blog for all he cared. It was like Gomez Addams decided to get an accent and stop trimming his own beard but worse, and Morticia probably left him over it. She took the kids so he changed his name to Reginald Wyoming or some dumb shit and then became a teacher. 

Okay that was a bit harsh, but god he just didn’t like that teacher. He felt like Professor Wyoming targeted him intentionally, maybe for not showing up or maybe because he mouthed off a lot. It didn’t matter to him, Church had his own agenda, and he was close to graduating anyhow. He’d have his degree in no time, and he’d get a job, he had plans, big plans! Besides if there was one occupation that would always need fresh minds it was the field of science! 

His life was really starting to come together, for the most part at least. He wasn’t too keen on his roommate dating his sister, for example, but that was their lives not his. If Carolina wanted to date Tucker who was he to complain, even if he’d known Tucker since his move to Washington and really wasn’t sure at all what Lina saw in him! 

He was glad to have his shared apartment to himself right now, Tucker was out with his sister, and it was a weekend, meaning no classes tomorrow, and he could sleep and do whatever he wanted. During the week he still had classes he NEEDED to attend, all taught by various other professors. He slept in some of them, goofed off on his computer in others. He was smart, he’d manage. 

What did suck though, was that he was alone on a Friday night with nothing but his two cats, Epsilon and Beta, and his laptop, movies and the snacks that he’d hoarded away from Tucker so he didn’t have to share. Epsilon and Beta, whom he had affectionately named Tex out of remembrance for his mother, hopped onto the bed with him. At first it’d only been Epsilon and Tucker, and he’d been fine with that, but Epsilon had gone wandering around and found a girl cat who followed him home, and now he had her. She had kittens on the way now too, she’d been carrying when Epsilon’s kittens when he took her in.

He could afford them all at least, he planned on getting Tex fixed and keeping the kittens. They were his cats after all, his babies. Tucker was okay with the cats, he liked them well enough, plus having animals in the apartment was nice, girls loved animals and whenever Lina was over she smothered them with affection. She’d even joke with Church and say Epsilon looked just like him. 

Fat chance, his cat was nowhere near as handsome as he was. If he was a cat, he’d get all the lady cats. So much pussy passed out by all of...the pussy. 

Okay that was a stupid thought. Church started a movie on his laptop and sat back, letting it rest on his lap while he opened a soda and relaxed. The cats curled up beside him and purred. It was warm near Church and soothing to hear the sounds of his breathing while the movie played. It was relaxing, so what if he wasn’t on a date or out with friends on a Friday night? He had his cats, and peace and quiet. 

Or it was quiet, at least, until Tex started to mewl and act funny. He looked at her and realized fast, because he’s so fucking smart, that his cat was in labor! 

Well shit, he spent so much time preparing for this just for Tucker to have his car, and his usual vet was MILES away! Church gave it the situation a mental ‘aw fuck it’ put the laboring Tex in a box and started to help her birth the kittens.

Cat labor was gross, very gross, and he was sure he saw many placentas, he even had to bust one open to get one of the kittens out, and he was sure he'd lost them too, but he rubbed it between his hands and soon he heard it mewl softly, and he was relieved. He sat that one down and proceeded to help her birth them all.

By the time Tucker got back Church was petting his cat and watching her nurse six kittens. Tucker, with Lina in tow, peeked over his shoulder.

“Dude she had the kittens?” Tucker asked, despite seeing the little baby kittens settled in a box on a  blanket and being nursed by Church’s black cat. 

“What does it look like? What kind of stupid question is that?” Church answered, moving his hand away from the sleeping Tex. Each kitten was a bit different from the last, and each was so tiny. Church had already named them, despite not knowing their genders yet. 

Omega, the first one, was black like Tex with a splotch of white in the shape of a horseshoe on its back, They’d eaten to their little heart's content and was curled up against mommy. The second was Delta, who was still nursing. They were a cute little one, and they almost looked like they had glasses on with how their gray and white fur circled around their eyes. After delta came Eta and Iota, who were almost exact matches. Eta however, was white and striped gray while Iota was gray and striped white. They were nursing next to Theta, who looked like the cat who’d fathered Church, they were tiny, and mostly gray save for their white paws and white left ear. 

Sigma was last, and stood out the most. They were red, and white and looked a lot like the mamma cat who mothered Church. He was curled up with Omega and snoozing. They were just so tiny and cute, and Lina and Tucker took photos while church tried to keep Epsilon from getting in the box. Daddy cat had to stay away for now. 

“Are you really going to keep all of them? I mean she had a big litter.” Tucker asked, taking Epsilon from Church. Epsilon rested on his shoulder, defeated but okay with just peeking in the box to see the kittens. 

“Uh,” Church said, “Yeah, Tucker, I’m keeping them. My cats dude. “

“Okay but hey you’re cleaning their box! And litter training them.” Church scoffed and left the kittens alone for now. The kittens all gathered around their mother and got warm, the world around them was dark and soundless and scary, and the warmth of the birth giver was a comfort though all of that. Praise be to her, the milk giver, the one who nurtures. She is all things good and right in the world. 

“That’s fine with me, it’s not like you helped with Beta when she came here or with Epsilon when he, and I, moved in here.”

“Come on I feed them sometimes, and pet them! I take just as much care of them as you do.”

“Yeah okay sure but you don’t take out the litter from the litter box, or bath them when they do gross shit, and you didn’t just sit here though a cat in labor and now I just want to nap okay?” He also wanted to throw a placenta at tucker, but he'd already disposed of them.

Carolina snorted and put her arms around Tucker. She kissed his cheek and then let go, heading for the door.

“I gotta go boys, but I’ll come by tomorrow after my workout.” 

They said goodbye to her, with Tucker saying some lovey dovey shit that almost made Church wanna vomit, and after the door closed he went to change and wash off because he had cat fluids all over his cloths. Birth was gross as fuck, Beta is getting her ass fixed. 

Tucker looked at the kittens while Church was washing off, they were all so cute. Okay so Church really did plan on caring for eight cats, wow what a loser. Church was going to die a lonely man and Tucker found that funny, so funny he laughed a little about it out loud. Church ignored him, though he did think about pretending to shake cat birth fluid on him. 

He’d help a bit, he liked his cats, Epsilon was a cuddle cat, and Tex was a good mouser, their apartment was the only one that hasn’t seen mice at all, at least not since Tex showed up. Church came out of the wash in sweats and a large ass t shirt and sat down. He stretched out and cracked his neck. It felt good, and he groaned with relief. 

He was tired, Tucker was tired. The night was starting to hit its peak and the two decided to just sleep. Church stared out their window from his bed, looking out as the rain started pouring down in waves. It was relaxing, rain in late fall always made him think of his mom, her smiling face, he loved rain. The rain made him think, and sometimes when it rained he’d almost remember something, some long forgotten obligation he’d made, he could never seem to catch that memory though. Just when he thought he would remember it jumped away, but he didn’t let it bother him. 

After all, if it was so important he’d definitely remember it right? Memory was tricky like that after all,  either it was unimportant and you'd forget or it’d slip by until whatever you wanted to remember came back to haunt you. Good memories were not something you should rush, they were like good and strong love, you had to be patient with them, let it blossom and let them grow slowly. If you just let them come to you, they’d find you for sure. His father had taught him that. 

He yawned, his eyes now heavy with exhaustion. He closed his eyes, relaxed into his mattress, and let the patter patter of drops on the window lull him to sleep. 

\--__--__--__--__--

The ground sparkled in the morning light with dew, Wash stretched, leaning over the railing of his balcony and taking in the morning air. He had had the worst wake up call, his alarm went off and his eyes had come face to face with large cat anus but otherwise this morning was nice, cool but not chilling, and smelling of the night’s rainfall and morning mist. 

Today was the day, he had worked hard on his film project last night and now he wanted to track down the one who’d written that letter. Wash went back inside and dressed, wearing some tight jeans and a t shirt with his favorite jean jacket over it, a scarf, and grabbed his murse. He raided his coat pocket for his wallet, and the note, shoved them into his murse and left, locking his apartment door after making sure Maine had food, water, and access to the balcony, and left.

He knew if he wanted to, he could look from the comfort of his apartment, just use his laptop to see how many Church Jr's were in Seattle, but that took the ADVENTURE out of it. 

His first stop was his workplace, a cute little family owned Coffee shop that a lot of Hipsters liked to frequent. He only worked there five days a week, after school for a few hours. He was tipped well enough, being ‘eye candy’ as his boss put it, and he got free coffee if he donated a $5 a day out of this tips to charity. 

He wanted to grab some coffee, a doughnut for breakfast, and head over to the library. He’d check the records there, and if that didn’t come up he’d use his laptop. Okay so it wasn't MUCH of an adventure but it was trying to FIND the person that was the important part not looking them up. That’s what made up the adventure. he grabbed his stuff as it was placed on the pickup counter and left, passing by a tired looking man with hella stubble and groggy green eyes.

\--__--__--__--__--

Church sat down as he waited for his drink. Sleep had come easy but he’d been drawn out of it by Tex, who got hungry in the night and needed to be fed, and then after that he kept getting meowed awake by kittens, or Tex or by a loudly snoring tucker. It was a nightmare. The rain had even stopped around five am.

 

He sipped his drink and ate, hoping the coffee here woke him from this tired state. he’d have to put up with a lot of this, at least until the kittens could walk around the see and hear. Man kittens were tough.

\--__--__--__--__--

He had to go shopping today too, kitty litter, cat food, new cat toys, six collars for when they were older. Church loved his cats but this was work, a lot of work. At least he was ‘applying’ himself. Take that professor Wyoming. 

So wash learned that there weren't as many Churches in Seattle that weren’t actual Churches. Church as a last name wasn’t common at all, at least not in this area. He’d been right about the guy who wrote textbooks though, he lived in Washington, and, so did his son, the ONLY church he’d found with ‘Jr.’ as part of his name.

Honestly he was the spitting image of the old man he probably called father, though that didn’t surprise him. he almost looked familiar, like he should know that face. Oh well, he pushed it out of his mind and looked for his address. 

Wash as pleased to see he didn’t live too far from where he went to school, while he didn’t live in the same apartment complex Wash did, he was close to it, which meant finding him wasn’t as hard as he thought. It was like he’d caught a sudden case of serendipity, and fortune was smiling at him, telling him he was doing a good service. 

He’d even found his apartment number, he’d copied it down, and then walked there, his nerves welling up inside of him as he climbed up the flights of stairs that led up to his apartment. Wash swallowed, and raised his hand to knock on the door. Nobody answered, he knocked again, and nobody answered. 

He sighed, he’d spent all day at the library for this, and he wasn’t even home! David was bummed out, but, after waiting a little bit for a response, he decided he’d try again tomorrow, and headed down the stairs. He left the grounds and looked down at his feet, dejected and a bit disappointed. So much for serendipity. In fact it felt like he was being teased, like some elder god was watching him from on high and torturing him, making fun of his adventurous spirit!

In fact said elder god had deemed him unlucky enough to run hard into someone! Before he registered what had happened, his ass hit the ground and he looked up, his blue-gray eyes meeting bright green as whoever he’d run into said a very aggravated “Watch it, asshole!” 

Wash didn’t respond, he was too busy staring at him, mouth agog with disbelief. he was staring at the man he’d passed by at the coffee shop, the man who he’d seen in the photographs on the computer during his search. That hard set face, deep green eyes, the facial hair, the short nicely cut dark hair, it was definitely him. That was just his luck, he was just fucking swimming in his shitty luck. 

He’d ran straight into Leonard Church Jr.

\--__--__--__--__--

**Author's Note:**

> I took this down a few days ago, and afterwiards decided to repost with a few correctiosn and revisions, and now it's back, and I hope you enjoy! Feel free to comment if you like. <3


End file.
